PC Magazine - USA (2020-07)

(Antfer) #1

Like its predecessor, the Surface Book 3 features two
cameras. A 5-megapixel front-facing camera with IR
sensors allows face-recognition logins to your Windows
account, and a second 8-megapixel rear shooter is
located on the upper-left portion of the back of the
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1080p video quality, and although they’re not as sharp
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an improvement over the noisy, dull video that most
720p laptop webcams capture.


The speakers are on the two top corners of the tablet;
there are none in the keyboard dock. For tablet
speakers, they do an admirable job. They’re loud
enough to be heard from a moderate distance, if not
exactly booming.


HOW DOES THE SURFACE BOOK 3 PERFORM?
To judge a laptop’s computing performance, we
normally compare its scores on benchmark tests with
those of other comparably priced laptops in the same
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Comparison systems include the Apple MacBook Pro,
HP ZBook Studio x360 G5, Lenovo Yoga C940 15-Inch,
and Microsoft Surface Book 2.


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large laptop that converts into a tablet and is aimed at
digital artists. Meanwhile, the 16-inch MacBook Pro is
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also a large laptop aimed at artists, and a good chunk of
its lofty price comes from its gargantuan 2TB SSD. The
same is true of the Surface Book 2 and the ZBook
Studio, content-creator-class laptops each sporting a
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but otherwise identical components to the one tested
here costs $3,399.99.


A 5-megapixel
front-facing
camera with IR
sensors allows
face-
recognition
logins to your
Windows
account.
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